High-paid wives let husbands do own thing

High-earning women are supporting their husbands as they quit their jobs in search of more fulfilling careers, a report disclosed yesterday.

A growing number of men are becoming disillusioned with desk-bound jobs and are seeking more creative professions such as teaching, says the Training and Development Agency for Schools.

Successful career women are fuelling the trend, say researchers, who found that a third of male graduates had a wife or girlfriend who earned as much if not more than them.

More than half said their partner would be willing to pay the mortgage and finance the child care while they set up a business or retrained.

The study, which questioned 1,000 male graduates aged over 30, found that a fifth of office-based men were considering a career change, with more than half saying they will do so in the future.

More than four in 10 said they were fed up with office politics, almost a third disliked being confined to the office and nearly a quarter said they did not find the office conducive to creativity.

More than a third — 35 per cent — said that money was no longer the most important factor when it came to choosing a career.

Turning 30 made almost a third of graduates re-evaluate their working lives, while almost a fifth said that becoming a parent was behind their desire to change jobs.

Helen Hamlyn, 39, agreed to support her husband, Nick, when he quit his £100,000 job in the City to pursue a teaching career three years ago.

Mrs Hamlyn, who earns about £70,000 as group promotions director on Harper's Bazaar and Esquire magazines, said her husband's quality of life had improved immeasurably since he became a French teacher.

"Teaching has been the making of him," she said. "Everybody deserves the chance to fulfil their dreams. He decided to retrain when we were thinking about starting a family and his new job means he spends more time with our two-year-old son."

Mr Hamlyn, 44, who teaches at a comprehensive school in north London, said he had no regrets about leaving the banking profession.

"I worked in the City for 10 years and loathed it," he said. "I realised there were other things in my life that were more important than earning money. I enjoy what I do enormously. It has taught me to be a better person."